About Me

My mother was murdered by what I call corporate and political homicide i.e. FOR PROFIT! she died from a rare phenotype of CJD i.e. the Heidenhain Variant of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease i.e. sporadic, simply meaning from unknown route and source. I have simply been trying to validate her death DOD 12/14/97 with the truth. There is a route, and there is a source. There are many here in the USA. WE must make CJD and all human TSE, of all age groups 'reportable' Nationally and Internationally, with a written CJD questionnaire asking real questions pertaining to route and source of this agent. Friendly fire has the potential to play a huge role in the continued transmission of this agent via the medical, dental, and surgical arena. We must not flounder any longer. ...TSS

4 environmental groups say agency is 'dragging its feet' on air pollution

By Matthew Tresaugue | May 2, 2013 | Updated: May 2, 2013 11:13pm

Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit to force federal regulators to
review the way they calculate emissions from petrochemical plants, oil
refineries and other large industrial facilities.

In the suit filed on Thursday, Air Alliance Houston and three other groups
accuse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of using outdated and inaccurate
formulas to estimate levels of air pollution.

The groups say studies show that actual smog-forming emissions can be 132
times greater than EPA estimates, which are based on data provided by the
industry. The agency, as a result, does not possess reliable data to protect
public health, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia.

"The EPA has a history of dragging its feet on this issue," said Jennifer
Duggan, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, a legal group
representing Air Alliance Houston and the other organizations in the case. "It
has been aware of these inaccuracies for some time."

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency is reviewing the suit but would not
provide additional comment.

The lawsuit comes five years after the city of Houston raised similar
issues with the federal agency, which uses the emissions data to develop
pollution controls, establish limits and guide enforcement.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on the House science committee are making an
unprecedented move to require oversight of the scientific research process,
pushing a bill that would in effect politicize decisions made by the National
Science Foundation, according to a draft of the legislation acquired by The
Huffington Post. As part of the same effort, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas),
chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, sent a letter to the
NSF Thursday demanding that it provide supporting materials to justify research
that its panels of independent scientists have approved.

The bill, titled the High Quality Research Act and authored by Smith, would
require the director of the NSF to certify in writing that every grant handed
out by the federal agency is for work that is "the finest quality, is ground
breaking, and answers questions or solves problems that are of utmost importance
to society at large; and ... is not duplicative of other research project being
funded by the Foundation or other Federal science agencies." The bill has not
been officially introduced, but HuffPost acquired a draft copy that Smith
circulated among colleagues.

The measure would also require federal officials to report back to Congress
on how the NSF was implementing the new regulations. Additionally, the bill
solicits recommendations for how to place similar restrictions on other federal
science agencies.

The requirements laid out in the bill are problematic on several levels.
The basic scientific method itself is by its nature duplicative, and is often
carried out purely for investigative purposes.

But Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas), the top Democrat on the committee,
found the proposal especially alarming after Smith demanded in his letter that
the NSF submit to the committee the technical peer review discussions conducted
among NSF scientists who decide on grant awards.

"Members of the Committee would benefit from access to the
scientific/technical reviews," Smith wrote in his letter last week to acting NSF
Director Cora Marrett. Smith highlighted a number of social science studies that
he had "concerns" about, including a study called "Picturing Animals in National
Geographic, 1888 - 2008," and "The International Criminal Court and the Pursuit
of Justice."

Johnson fired back Friday with a letter to Smith saying that his request --
coupled with the legislation -- was a dangerous politicization of one of the
most successful scientific research promoters in history.

"Your letter marks the beginning of an investigative effort, the
implications of which are profound," Johnson wrote. "This is the first step on a
path that would destroy the merit-based review process at NSF and intrudes
political pressure into what is widely regarded as the most effective and
creative process for awarding research funds in the world."

She goes on to argue that politicians have no business considering
themselves on par with scientists when it comes to evaluating scientific merit,
noting that no previous chairman of the committee has ever put himself forward
as an expert in science.

"Interventions in grant awards by political figures with agenda, biases,
and no expertise is the antithesis of the peer review processes," Johnson
continued. "By making this request, you are sending a chilling message to the
scientific community that peer review will always be trumped by political
review."

Smith said in a statement to The Huffington Post that the NSF projects for
which he has requested more information do not meet the foundation's
standards.

“The NSF has great potential to promote American innovation and expand our
economy," Smith said. "When the NSF only has enough money to fund one in seven
research proposals, they must ensure that each one is of the highest quality.
The proposals about which I have requested further information do not seem to
meet the high standards of most NSF-funded projects. Congress has a
responsibility to review questionable research paid for by hard-working American
taxpayers. If academic or other institutions want to conduct such research on
these kinds of subjects they can pay for them with their own private funds.
Public funds should be used to benefit the American people."

Smith listed five NSF projects about which he has requested further
information.

Smith, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee last session, led the House
legislative effort behind its version of SOPA -- the Stop Online Piracy Act.
That effort became highly controversial as opponents saw it as an attempt to
inject government into an area where it could stifle innovation. It was
ultimately dropped and the legislation rejected.

On Monday, President Obama will speak at the National Academy of Sciences
to mark its 150th anniversary.

CORRECTION: The original article misstated the name of the Stop Online
Piracy Act as the "Stop Online Privacy Act." It has been corrected.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘High Quality Research Act’’.

SEC. 2. HIGH QUALITY RESEARCH.

(a) CERTIFICATION.—Prior to making an award of any contract or grant
funding for a scientific research project, the Director of the National Science
Foundation shall publish a statement on the public website of the Foundation
that certifies that the research project—

(1) is in the interests of the United States to advance the national
health, prosperity, or welfare, and to secure the national defense by promoting
the progress of science;

(2) is the finest quality, is ground breaking, and answers questions or
solves problems that are of utmost importance to society at large; and

(3) is not duplicative of other research projects being funded by the
Foundation or other Federal science agencies.

(b) TRANSFER OF FUNDS.—Any unobligated funds for projects not meeting the
requirements of subsection

(a) may be awarded to other scientific research projects that do meet such
requirements.

(c) INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Director shall report to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space,
and Technology of the House of Representatives on how the requirements set forth
in subsection (a) are being implemented.

(d) NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD IMPLEMENTATION

REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the
National Science Board shall report to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
of the House of Representatives its findings and recommendations on how the
requirements of subsection (a) are being implemented.

(e) IMPLEMENTATION BY OTHER AGENCIES.—Not later than 1 year after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy, in collaboration with the National Science and Technology Council, shall
report to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate
and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of
Representatives on how the requirements of subsection (a) may be implemented in
other Federal science agencies.

The plant had 1,350 times the legally allowed amount of highly explosive
ammonium nitrate, yet hadn’t informed the Department of Homeland Security of the
danger. Likewise, the fertilizer plant did not have sprinklers, shut-off valves,
fire alarms or legally required blast walls, all of which could have prevented
the catastrophic damage done. And there was little chance regulators would learn
about the problems without the company reporting them: Not only had the
Occupation Safety and Health Administration not inspected the plant since 1985,
but also, due to underfunding, OSHA can only inspect plants like the one in West
on average once every 129 years.

Governor of Texas Rick Perry claims there is no need for more regulations,
he is fine with the regulations in place in West Texas, and is confident in
that, the fertilizer plant that blew up in West, had not been inspected since
1985. This in a state where industrial regulations are a joke. Governor Perry
says, come to Texas, bring your pollution, bring your radioactive nuclear waste,
bring your run down chemical plants, Texas does not care, come on down, the
water is fine, you can’t swim in it anymore, fish die in it, and don’t eat the
fish from Galveston Bay is what the TCEQ states, but come on down anyway, bring
us your dollars, your pollution, and we will not even tax you much, come on down
to Texas and spew your benzene in the air, we don’t care, we will just not
monitor it anymore (bill 791), come to Texas where the flounder fish float
upside down, white side up, in Galveston Bay, the water is fine. ...

Monday, March 25, 2013

TCEQ Proposes Removal of Two Pollutants from the Texas City APWL
Area--Benzene and Hydrogen Sulfide

LUBBOCK (AP) — People living nearest to a radioactive waste dump site in
West Texas would be barred from challenging the company operating the facility
under a bill that opponents say further caters to the business.

Senate Bill 791 also encourages members of a compact, Texas and Vermont, to
send their low-level waste elsewhere, allows for the company to take in
additional, more radioactive material per year and seeks to prohibit public
hearings or comment on some changes to the company’s license.

The bill from Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, could be voted on as early as
today. A similar bill has been filed in the House.

Residents of Eunice, N.M., live less than 10 miles from Dallas-based Waste
Control Specialist’s 1,300-acre radioactive waste burial ground. Under the bill,
they would no longer be able to claim to Texas licensing officials that their
well-being is affected by the dump. The bill allows for challenges from Texas
residents in Andrews County, home to the dump site, and any adjacent Texas
county.

Eunice native Rose Gardner has long objected to the dump site, believing
that leaks will lead to groundwater contamination. She said she’s long known
that someday the company would try to silence her objections.

“There isn’t a Texan living near the state line,” the 54-year-old flower
shop owner said. “They live 37 miles away in Andrews. And we’re sitting here
like little kids playing tiddlywinks.”

Company spokesman Chuck McDonald said that part of the bill might not
remain. He said Seliger spoke to Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, about a proposed
amendment.

“I think it’s really a moot point based on the exchange I heard in
committee,” McDonald said.

A call seeking comment from Seliger was not immediately returned
Tuesday.

The nuclear waste dump site, whose majority owner is billionaire and GOP
mega-donor Harold Simmons, accepted its first low-level radioactive waste about
a year ago, ending an expensive and years-long effort by the company to bury
materials from medical, research and industrial activities and from nuclear
power plants. Also buried there is PCB-tainted sludge dredged from the Hudson
River in New York and tons of Cold-war era radioactive waste from a former
uranium-processing plant in Ohio.

Environmental groups have opposed the company’s continual pressing for
various types of waste to bury in the remote scrub brush terrain about 375 miles
west of Dallas.

“It’s just always something more and I have to wonder where this will end,”
said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Texas SEED Coalition.

Originally the site was to handle low-level waste from compact states, but
last legislative session lawmakers approved allowing waste from more than three
dozen states to be buried at the facility.

Seliger’s bill also seeks to promote sending low-level waste, known as
Class A, out of Texas for burial and ups the annual radiation limit for the next
two years from 220,000 to 300,000 curies so that states outside the compact can
to dispose of hotter waste, known as Class B and C.

The company, Andrews County and the state stand to make more money from the
hotter waste. The county receives 5 percent and the state 25 percent of the
company’s revenues quarterly.

Lawmakers should play an active role in regulating any future plans by the
company to expand the site’s capacity and any change in its license, including
the forms, types or streams of waste, Duncan said.

it now reminds me of Russia, except even old President Putin has more sense
than slick rick perry.

rick perry is more of a cancer risk to Texas than the damn nuclear dump
itself, but these fools that keep voting for him (big buisness), will vote for
him again$

the only thing rick perry wants are all the poor, the middle class, the
needy, the elderly, the disabled, he wants to force all these folks out of
Texas, where Texas will only be a rich republican state, and industrialize the
whole damn state, in my opinion.

these fools act like these nuclear dumps never leak, and this is simply not
the case ;

Hanford Nuclear Tank Leaking Radioactive Waste

By SHANNON DININNY and MIKE BAKER 02/15/13 06:19 PM ET EST

Hanford Nuclear Tank, US Nuclear Sites, Hanford Nuclear Reservation,
Nuclear Leak, Radioactive Waste, Us Nuclear Plants, Green News OLYMPIA, Wash. --
The long-delayed cleanup of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site became
the subject of more bad news Friday, when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced
that a radioactive waste tank there is leaking.

The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at
south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure
on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being
built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste.

The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span,
hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of
plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing
in one of 177 underground tanks at the site. Monitoring wells near the tank have
not detected higher radiation levels, but Inslee said the leak could be in the
range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year and poses a
potential long-term threat to groundwater and rivers.

"I am alarmed about this on many levels," Inslee said at a news conference.
"This raises concerns, not only about the existing leak ... but also concerning
the integrity of the other single shell tanks of this age."

Inslee said the state was assured years ago that such problems had been
dealt with and he warned that spending cuts – particularly due to a budget fight
in Congress – would create further risks at Hanford. Inslee said the cleanup
must be a priority for the federal government.

"We are willing to exercise our rights using the legal system at the
appropriate time. That should be clear," Inslee said.

Inslee said the state has a good partner in Energy Secretary Steven Chu but
that he's concerned about whether Congress is committed to clean up the highly
contaminated site.

The tank in question contains about 447,000 gallons of sludge, a mixture of
solids and liquids with a mud-like consistency. The tank, built in the 1940s, is
known to have leaked in the past, but was stabilized in 1995 when all liquids
that could be pumped out of it were removed.

Inslee said the tank is the first to have been documented to be losing
liquids since all Hanford tanks were stabilized in 2005. His staff said the
federal government is working to assess other tanks.

At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford in
the remote sagebrush of eastern Washington as part of a hush-hush project to
build the atomic bomb. The site ultimately produced plutonium for the world's
first atomic blast and for one of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, effectively
ending the war.

Plutonium production continued there through the Cold War. Today, Hanford
is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. Cleanup will cost billions of
dollars and last decades.

Central to that cleanup is the removal of millions of gallons of a highly
toxic, radioactive stew – enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools –
from 177 aging, underground tanks. Many of those tanks have leaked over time –
an estimated 1 million gallons of waste – threatening the groundwater and the
neighboring Columbia River, the largest waterway in the Pacific Northwest.

Twenty- eight of those tanks have double walls, allowing the Energy
Department to pump waste from leaking single-shell tanks into them. However,
there is very little space left in those double-shell tanks today.

In addition, construction of a $12.3 billion plant to convert the waste to
a safe, stable form is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over
budget. Technical problems have slowed the project, and several workers have
filed lawsuits in recent months, claiming they were retaliated against for
raising concerns about the plant's design and safety.

"We're out of time, obviously. These tanks are starting to fail now," said
Tom Carpenter of the Hanford watchdog group Hanford Challenge. "We've got a
problem. This is big."

Inslee said he would be traveling to Washington D.C. next week to discuss
the problem further.

___

Dininny reported from Yakima, Wash.

On Feb 16, 2013, at 9:53 AM, Terry S. Singeltary Sr. wrote:

Texas Billionaire Builds Giant Nuclear Waste Dump

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons has been called the king of Superfund
sites. His companies, like publicly traded NL Industries, have over the years
reportedly polluted numerous industrial sites with toxic metals and radiation.
And another of his companies, Waste Control Specialists, is in the business of
cleaning the messes up. It’s such a clever strategy that Dallas’ D Magazine in
an insightful profile last year, called 79-year-old Simmons Dallas’ “most evil
genius.“

For years WCS (a division of publicly traded Valhi) lobbied to open a
nuclear waste disposal site Andrews County of west Texas near the New Mexico
border. It’s dry, empty country. Oil fields provide most of the jobs. It took
Simmons some six years of lobbying to get the permits to open his nuclear dump
and start accepting what could ultimately be 60 million cubic feet of low-level
nuclear waste.

This is not the kind of waste that would have gone to the ill-fated Yucca
Mountain project in Nevada (i.e. spent fuel rods and such). But it’s pretty
harsh stuff nonetheless: the refuse from nuclear medical applications, weapons
programs, parts from old nuclear reactors. Already a worker at the site and a
septic system have reportedly been tainted by plutonium. Mother Jones magazine
published this piece on Simmons’ nuke dump earlier this week: “A Texas-Sized
Plan For Nuclear Waste.”

Now I don’t think there’s anything wrong with building and operating a well
regulated dump for low-level nuclear waste. After all, the stuff has got to go
somewhere and someone’s got to be responsible for it. But the Mother Jones
article raises some legitimate concerns.

Three staff members at the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality quit
their jobs after their concerns that the nuke dump could pollute ground water
with radiation were ignored. They believe that the uppermost layer of the
massive Ogallala Aquifer lay just 14 feet below the dump. And if not the
Ogallala, then it might be the Pecos Valley Aquifer. WCS has reportedly said
that any such concerns are unjustified, though the D Magazine article explains
that maps prepared by the Texas Water Development Board show that the areas
where the nuke dump is located … “is underlain by four aquifers. In addition to
the Dockum, there are three major aquifers: Ogallala (or High Plains), Pecos
Valley (or Cenozoic Pecos Alluvium), and Edwards-Trinity Plateau. The TWDB and
USGS websites both state that the Edwards-Trinity Plateau Aquifer is
hydraulically connected to four major aquifers, including the Ogallala, and
several minor aquifers, including the Dockum.”

More scientific concerns were voiced in this 2008 Texas Observer article
“Good to Glow.“ None of that, nor a history of accidental contaminations at the
site, nor outcry from environmental groups, stopped Texas’ Radioactive Waste
Disposal Compact Commission from voting to approve the import of nuclear waste
into Texas from other states. Six of the seven members of that commission were
appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who reportedly received $250,000 in campaign
cash from Simmons for the 2008 governor’s race.

Texas will reportedly receive $36 million a year for allowing the imports;
Simmons will get millions more for watching over them. Ultimate responsibility
if anything goes wrong falls on the state.

It just doesn’t look good. Like I said before, properly regulated nuclear
dumps are not terrible in and of themselves. But when politically tainted
commissions override the concerns of hydrologists willing to quit to make
themselves heard, it’s probably time for Texans to demand an independent
investigation of the true risks of Simmons’ nuke dump.

I think the title should have read, "TEXAS LOSES TO BE NEXT BIG DUMPING
GROUND FOR NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION RADIOACTIVE WASTE", thanks to Governor Rick
Perry.

update on my father-in-law Dana (RED) Ashcraft of Miamisburg Ohio, and my
best fishing buddy, and Poisoned AT THE MONSANTO MOUND, hospice has now been
called in. ...

snip...

part II December 25, 2010

WHY then, was my father-in-laws work records denied him, with the claim
that his records were buried deep in a mountain due to contamination ? now i am
speaking of only his work records, not the radioactive waste itself, that you
claim to be 1000 % safe today. tell me that. do you know how many different
folks handled all that paper work over the years. also, the swimming pool in
Miamisburg Ohio, the old one right down from the Monsanto Mound. the town had to
shut it down and fill the swimming pool in with cement. wonder how many kids
there were exposed over the decades, including my wife ?

MONSANTO MOUND MIAMISBURG OHIO SWIMMING POOL

" We acknowledge that some people near the Mound Plant have breathed, or
will likely breathe, very small amounts of plutonium-238, hydrogen-3 (tritium),
and other radioactive substances that will be or have been released into the air
from the Mound Plant. And some people may be exposed to radioactive materials
released from the Mound Plant into the area waterways (for example, tritium in
the Miamisburg Community Park swimming pool). Nevertheless, there is no evidence
that current environmental levels of these substances cause adverse health
effects. "

Data Evaluation: Current Exposures

snip...

Then, they send all the radioactive waste to Texas. Now, we are going to
multiply this by about 38 states ?

stupid is, as stupid does, and some times you just can't fix stupid $$$

My old fishing buddy (my father-in-law Red, deceased now), took these
photos after I convinced him to get back with the Mayor and see if he would take
him down there again, and if he did, get me a photo or two of this nuclear crap
coming to Texas, thanks to the good Governor of Texas, rick perry, the steward
of the environment that he is (NOT). well, here are the photo’s ;

personally, I think it’s time for slick rick perry and all his corporate
cronies, it’s time for them to go, they have done enough harm to Texas and it’s
people. rick perry is a cancer to Texas. environmental stewards they are not,
nor will they ever be $

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons has been called the king of Superfund
sites. His companies, like publicly traded NL Industries, have over the years
reportedly polluted numerous industrial sites with toxic metals and radiation.
And another of his companies, Waste Control Specialists, is in the business of
cleaning the messes up. It’s such a clever strategy that Dallas’ D Magazine in
an insightful profile last year, called 79-year-old Simmons Dallas’ “most evil
genius.“

For years WCS (a division of publicly traded Valhi) lobbied to open a
nuclear waste disposal site Andrews County of west Texas near the New Mexico
border. It’s dry, empty country. Oil fields provide most of the jobs. It took
Simmons some six years of lobbying to get the permits to open his nuclear dump
and start accepting what could ultimately be 60 million cubic feet of low-level
nuclear waste.

This is not the kind of waste that would have gone to the ill-fated Yucca
Mountain project in Nevada (i.e. spent fuel rods and such). But it’s pretty
harsh stuff nonetheless: the refuse from nuclear medical applications, weapons
programs, parts from old nuclear reactors. Already a worker at the site and a
septic system have reportedly been tainted by plutonium. Mother Jones magazine
published this piece on Simmons’ nuke dump earlier this week: “A Texas-Sized
Plan For Nuclear Waste.”

Now I don’t think there’s anything wrong with building and operating a well
regulated dump for low-level nuclear waste. After all, the stuff has got to go
somewhere and someone’s got to be responsible for it. But the Mother Jones
article raises some legitimate concerns.

Three staff members at the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality quit
their jobs after their concerns that the nuke dump could pollute ground water
with radiation were ignored. They believe that the uppermost layer of the
massive Ogallala Aquifer lay just 14 feet below the dump. And if not the
Ogallala, then it might be the Pecos Valley Aquifer. WCS has reportedly said
that any such concerns are unjustified, though the D Magazine article explains
that maps prepared by the Texas Water Development Board show that the areas
where the nuke dump is located … “is underlain by four aquifers. In addition to
the Dockum, there are three major aquifers: Ogallala (or High Plains), Pecos
Valley (or Cenozoic Pecos Alluvium), and Edwards-Trinity Plateau. The TWDB and
USGS websites both state that the Edwards-Trinity Plateau Aquifer is
hydraulically connected to four major aquifers, including the Ogallala, and
several minor aquifers, including the Dockum.”

More scientific concerns were voiced in this 2008 Texas Observer article
“Good to Glow.“ None of that, nor a history of accidental contaminations at the
site, nor outcry from environmental groups, stopped Texas’ Radioactive Waste
Disposal Compact Commission from voting to approve the import of nuclear waste
into Texas from other states. Six of the seven members of that commission were
appointed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who reportedly received $250,000 in campaign
cash from Simmons for the 2008 governor’s race.

Texas will reportedly receive $36 million a year for allowing the imports;
Simmons will get millions more for watching over them. Ultimate responsibility
if anything goes wrong falls on the state.

It just doesn’t look good. Like I said before, properly regulated nuclear
dumps are not terrible in and of themselves. But when politically tainted
commissions override the concerns of hydrologists willing to quit to make
themselves heard, it’s probably time for Texans to demand an independent
investigation of the true risks of Simmons’ nuke dump.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The long-delayed cleanup of the nation's most
contaminated nuclear site became the subject of more bad news Friday, when
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that a radioactive waste tank there is
leaking.

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Hanford Nuclear Tank Leaking Radioactive Waste

By SHANNON DININNY and MIKE BAKER 02/15/13 06:19 PM ET EST

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The long-delayed cleanup of the nation's most
contaminated nuclear site became the subject of more bad news Friday, when
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that a radioactive waste tank there is
leaking.

The news raises concerns about the integrity of similar tanks at
south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation and puts added pressure
on the federal government to resolve construction problems with the plant being
built to alleviate environmental and safety risks from the waste.

The tanks, which are already long past their intended 20-year life span,
hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of
plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing
in one of 177 underground tanks at the site. Monitoring wells near the tank have
not detected higher radiation levels, but Inslee said the leak could be in the
range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year and poses a
potential long-term threat to groundwater and rivers.

"I am alarmed about this on many levels," Inslee said at a news conference.
"This raises concerns, not only about the existing leak ... but also concerning
the integrity of the other single shell tanks of this age."

Inslee said the state was assured years ago that such problems had been
dealt with and he warned that spending cuts – particularly due to a budget fight
in Congress – would create further risks at Hanford. Inslee said the cleanup
must be a priority for the federal government.

"We are willing to exercise our rights using the legal system at the
appropriate time. That should be clear," Inslee said.

Inslee said the state has a good partner in Energy Secretary Steven Chu but
that he's concerned about whether Congress is committed to clean up the highly
contaminated site.

The tank in question contains about 447,000 gallons of sludge, a mixture of
solids and liquids with a mud-like consistency. The tank, built in the 1940s, is
known to have leaked in the past, but was stabilized in 1995 when all liquids
that could be pumped out of it were removed.

Inslee said the tank is the first to have been documented to be losing
liquids since all Hanford tanks were stabilized in 2005. His staff said the
federal government is working to assess other tanks.

At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford in
the remote sagebrush of eastern Washington as part of a hush-hush project to
build the atomic bomb. The site ultimately produced plutonium for the world's
first atomic blast and for one of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, effectively
ending the war.

Plutonium production continued there through the Cold War. Today, Hanford
is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. Cleanup will cost billions of
dollars and last decades.

Central to that cleanup is the removal of millions of gallons of a highly
toxic, radioactive stew – enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools –
from 177 aging, underground tanks. Many of those tanks have leaked over time –
an estimated 1 million gallons of waste – threatening the groundwater and the
neighboring Columbia River, the largest waterway in the Pacific Northwest.

Twenty- eight of those tanks have double walls, allowing the Energy
Department to pump waste from leaking single-shell tanks into them. However,
there is very little space left in those double-shell tanks today.

In addition, construction of a $12.3 billion plant to convert the waste to
a safe, stable form is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over
budget. Technical problems have slowed the project, and several workers have
filed lawsuits in recent months, claiming they were retaliated against for
raising concerns about the plant's design and safety.

"We're out of time, obviously. These tanks are starting to fail now," said
Tom Carpenter of the Hanford watchdog group Hanford Challenge. "We've got a
problem. This is big."

Inslee said he would be traveling to Washington D.C. next week to discuss
the problem further.

I think the title should have read, "TEXAS LOSES TO BE NEXT BIG DUMPING
GROUND FOR NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION RADIOACTIVE WASTE", thanks to Governor Rick
Perry.

update on my father-in-law Dana (RED) Ashcraft of Miamisburg Ohio, and my
best fishing buddy, and Poisoned AT THE MONSANTO MOUND, hospice has now been
called in. ...

TSS

part II December 25, 2010

WHY then, was my father-in-laws work records denied him, with the claim
that his records were buried deep in a mountain due to contamination ? now i am
speaking of only his work records, not the radioactive waste itself, that you
claim to be 1000 % safe today. tell me that. do you know how many different
folks handled all that paper work over the years. also, the swimming pool in
Miamisburg Ohio, the old one right down from the Monsanto Mound. the town had to
shut it down and fill the swimming pool in with cement. wonder how many kids
there were exposed over the decades, including my wife ?

MONSANTO MOUND MIAMISBURG OHIO SWIMMING POOL

" We acknowledge that some people near the Mound Plant have breathed, or
will likely breathe, very small amounts of plutonium-238, hydrogen-3 (tritium),
and other radioactive substances that will be or have been released into the air
from the Mound Plant. And some people may be exposed to radioactive materials
released from the Mound Plant into the area waterways (for example, tritium in
the Miamisburg Community Park swimming pool). Nevertheless, there is no evidence
that current environmental levels of these substances cause adverse health
effects. "

Data Evaluation: Current Exposures

snip...

Then, they send all the radioactive waste to Texas. Now, we are going to
multiply this by about 38 states ?

stupid is, as stupid does, and some times you just can't fix stupid $$$

My old fishing buddy (my father-in-law Red, deceased now), took these
photos after I convinced him to get back with the Mayor and see if he would take
him down there again, and if he did, get me a photo or two of this nuclear crap
coming to Texas, thanks to the good Governor of Texas, rick perry, the steward
of the environment that he is (NOT). well, here are the photo’s ;